Tutorial for distance on-line learning (by EDUMOTIVA)

1. Introduction

Undoubtedly the recent pandemic of COVID-19 has changed many things in our lives and education is not an exception. Face to face teaching is no longer available (acad. year 2020-21) to the most of the higher education institutions. Hence, it is very critical for the institutions to provide online education in current pandemic times by deploying the available tools. Due to the fact that most of the universities along Europe do not provide face to face teaching online education becomes a necessity in order educational process be continued. As the initial goal is to mitigate the absence of face to face teaching in some cases a better outcome can be achieved through online teaching than face to face, by adopting the appropriate tools and techniques. The obtained knowledge and experience could be exploited beyond pandemic era in order effectiveness of educational process be supported.

Lecturing in online education is considered to be a very boring situation for the audience. Increasing the interest, productivity and creating an interactive environment between students and teacher as well as amongst students is a big challenge. Online teaching process can be supported by synchronous and asynchronous environments giving the opportunity to participants to collaborate and interact. As a response to pandemic era many of such environments arose and rapidly become popular among educational community.

This work proposes tools and techniques combined into scenarios for online teaching in higher education institutions and emphasizes on how to overcome online teaching’s obstacles and create a friendly and simultaneously productive online teaching process.

The rest of this work is organized as follows. Chapter 2 presents a review of tools for synchronous and asynchronous online teaching with a comparison for each category separately. Chapter 3 describes the development of innovative online teaching techniques tailored to a particular topic. Furthermore, examples on how to organize online course using a particular platform is described in Chapter 4 whereas guidelines on the way to support synchronous online teaching through live webinars is presented during Chapter 5. Guidelines on how to support and maintain interaction through online teaching amongst teachers and students as well as amongst students referring on Chapter 6. A suggestion of guidelines in the form of scenarios on how to support students’ projects/activities online is proposed throughout Chapter 7. Finally, Chapter 8 outlined how to assess the digital learning experiences using different forms of digital assessment.

2. Review of online tools and e-learning practices towards optimal learning experiences in higher education.

This section includes two parts. First one will present a review of synchronous on-line tools for teaching (i.e. Zoom, Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, etc) while the asynchronous on-line tools (i.e. eclass, moodle) will be examined through the second part.

E-learning is composed by two, of equal importance, parts. The first part is synchronous learning and is implemented by specific tools which offer live video conference among participants. These platforms are called also webinar software since have many other features. Asynchronous learning is the second part that is also essential. Content Management Systems (CMS) is adopted for utilization of asynchronous learning. Hybrid methods are exploited by higher education institutes, by using both types of e-learning, targeting to make educational process as much effective as possible.

This Chapter carries out a separate review of synchronous and asynchronous tools.

2.1. Synchronous online teaching tools

Synchronous online teaching platforms already exists before covid-19 pandemic era but become popular in now days because of pandemic’s restrictions. The majority of them were designed targeting business’s need for online meeting, collaborating-training and webinars. Their main feature is video conference and collaboration as well as the video quality which is provided. Some of the most well-known platforms are Microsoft (MS) Teams, Zoom, Cisco Webex, Bigbluebutton, and jitsi. In higher education an effective and flexible synchronous platform, is essential for replacing face to face lecturing and make teaching keep going

Microsoft Teams (https://www.microsoft.com/en-ww/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software) replaced Microsoft Classroom in 2017. It is a completed platform which incorporates all Microsoft’s products, including Office 365, in order to increase distance’s learning productivity. Features like whiteboard, screen sharing and file sharing are provided not only on paid licenses but also in the free plan which can accommodate up to 100 participants to a maximum session duration of 60 minutes. Bigbluebutton (https://bigbluebutton.org/) on the other hand, is a powerful open source platform which is distributed under GNU General Public License. Bigbluebutton is amongst of the most popular synchronous online platforms in higher educational institutes, because of its features. Some Bigbluebutton’s features are multiuser whiteboard, breakout rooms, polling, and screen and file sharing. Jitsi (https://jitsi.org/) is also another open source platform as well. The ability to participate a meeting without the necessity of creating account is usual in many platforms but, worth to be mentioned that jitsi gives also the privilege to start a meeting via web lacking any account, making it very popular. It offers all the well known features and optionally can be installed in a server instead of utilized the web option. Zoom and Cisco Webex are the two platforms that will be presented more analytically. This is due to the fact that these are the most widely used in higher education, and their free license offer enough features.

Zoom Meeting (https://zoom.us/) is a cloud based platform and one of the most popular webinar tool on the Internet which is utilized for synchronous online teaching. Its essential feature is video conferencing collaboration.

Zoom can allows 100 participants per meeting (free license) to up to 1000 for paying licenses. Cloud storage is available for session recording whereas, in free license session recording is stored locally on host’s device. Chat, screen or window sharing, whiteboard sharing and integration of third-party applications for file sharing such as Dropbox or Google Drive are some Zoom’s features. Additionally the ability of breakout sessions, where participants are divided automatically or manually by host into more than one virtual rooms is provided. A participant can also join a session via traditional telephony (dial-in) in case where Internet access is limited. Each participant in order to have the chance to join a Zoom meeting either can download the free Zoom software for its device (available for windows, macOS X, android, Linux, iOS) or can join via a web browser, without the need to create an account.

Another powerful platform is Webex (https://www.webex.com/) which can support synchronous online teaching and it is very popular into educational community. Provides video conference collaboration, polls option, instant messaging, participants can share their screen or a particular window, use multiples whiteboards and breakout sessions. Joining a Webex meeting can be done by two ways. Either by using the Webex software, which is available for any platform, or via browser, installing the additional, at each case, plug in.

In a situation where internet is not available, a participant can join the meeting through dial-in telephone with local call charge. Webex except paying licenses where the number of participants depends on buyer’s needs, free license can support up to 100 participants for maximum meeting duration of 50 minutes.

Table 1 Zoom vs Webex, Feature Comparison

As mentioned above Zoom and Webex have very similar features and components. A difference among two platforms is the security that offers each one. Zoom uses 256-bit TLS encryption for communication whereas end-to-end encryption is optional. In the contrary, Webex supports 256-bit TLS encryption but also utilizes end-to-end encryption as a standard feature. Zoom platform is more widely distributed than Webex, due to the fact that Webex’s initial free plan (early 2020) was very limited compared to the Zoom’s corresponding plan. That led to Zoom’s dominance but nowadays Webex has also a large installed base. Must be mentioned that neither of the above platforms are initially designed for educational purposes rather for meeting business needs.

2.2. Asynchronous teaching tools

Asynchronous e-Learning platforms work supplementary to synchronous online teaching or can they be used as standalone tools supportively to face to face teaching. In higher educational institutes such of tools were already implemented in order to support learning process. Due to pandemic and distance learning enforcement, asynchronous platforms become even more crucial for teachers and students. Many platforms have been adopted to support teachers and students like Moodle, Google Classroom, Open eClass, Canvas, Blackboard and edX.

Google as a leading giant on the Internet, offers, with out of charge, Google Classroom (https://classroom.google.com/) for asynchronous teaching which integrates Google Drive as storage. This results, that teacher can use any of Google’s Drive tools to create documents and being assigned to the students. Moreover, Blackboard Learn (https://www.blackboard.com) constitutes a good alternative for asynchronous platform providing many features, yet pricing policy does not include any free license. Furthermore, Open edX (https://open.edx.org/) is an open source platform which is created by MIT and Harvard University, aiming to spread knowledge into public by massive open online courses (MOOC). The latest platform, can be utilized by higher education to engage students to the learning process, lean on the quantity of the available tools. Following the same philosophy as the previous platform, Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/), which was founded by Stanford University to provide quality MOOC that leads to certificates. Coursera can be exploited as asynchronous platform in order to support distance online learning. World’s most well-known platform is Moodle (https://moodle.org/) which is an open source web-based platform that follows client-server architecture. Is considered as a Learning Management System (LMS) meaning that is created aiming to support and extend online/distance learning procedure. Canvas (https://www.instructure.com/en-gb/product/canvas/higher-ed) is also a web-based LMS platform, follows same architecture as Moodle. The Greek Universities Network has develop its own proposal for asynchronous e-Learning services named Open eClass (https://www.openeclass.org/). Open eClass is widely spread in Greek academic community but it is also available in many languages such as English, Spanish, French, German and Italian. It is an open source and web-based, as the aforementioned platforms, and it is supported by the Greek Universities network (GUnet). Moodle, Canvas and Open eClass considering their acceptance by the academic community will be examined more detailed in the following paragraphs.

Moodle’s interface can be characterized as user friendly although sometimes the plenty of options leads to the opposite result. An experience user will exploit all the given preferences while a beginner might be confused. Some features that Moodle supports are:

·         Assignments

·         Chat

·         Choice

·         Database

·         Feedback

·         Forum

·         Glossary

·         Lesson

·         Quiz

·         Survey

·         Wiki

·         Workshop

·         Learning path (SCORM)

Platform’s administrator, “teacher” and “student” are the three main accounts that Moodle defines although “manager”, “course creator” and “non-editing teacher” are extra types of accounts which also are defined. Moodle is distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) which means that any institute or organization can install it on its server and run Moodle platform. Additionally, unlike other LMS platforms, Moodle gives the option to the customer to run Moodle through https://moodle.org cloud at a given cost relieving from hardware and administration cost.

The Open eClass platform has been designed, by Greek Universities network, for asynchronous e-Learning purposes hence, it is considered as an LMS. Same way like Moodle, courses can be created by teacher while students can enroll/follow any course for which they are eligible based on their account privileges’.

Open eClass’ environment is user friendly, providing many tools for teacher in order to create dynamic educational activities. Such tools are:

·         Agenda

·         Documents

·         Announcements

·         Forums

·         User Groups

·         Links

·         Assignments

·         Self- evaluation exercises

·         Glossary

·         E-book

·         Multimedia

·         Learning path

·         Wiki questionnaires

At this point must be highlighted that Open eClass offers less options than Moodle, however fist one has more easy menu.

A beginner user may prefer Open eClass as a result of its less complexity compared to Moodle. Except platform’s administrator two main user types are supported which are “teacher” and “student” while “teacher assistant” and “group leader” are auxiliary type of users. Open eClass platform is distributed free as open source software. Any installation must be supported by the person/organization to whom it belongs.

Canvas is a wide spread LMS platform in higher education designed to enhance students engagement during asynchronous e-Learning and it is addressed particularly for educational purposes. Canvas’ features include Outcomes, MasteryPaths, Speedgrader, Mastery GradeBook, and Canvas Parent. MasteryPaths is a powerful tool which allows content automatically be released to the students based on their prior performance.

Despite the fact that Canvas is a modern and fresh looking platform with a user friendly interface, Moodle is by far more powerful. User has limited customization control in courses’ tools and interface. Third party tools are easily incorporate and cooperate with Canvas giving teacher the benefit to integrate popular applications.

Even though Canvas is an open source web based platform, educational institutes must pay in order to install the platform in a private server or use the Canvas’ cloud for hosting their LMS while the exact fee depends on how large the organization is. There are also two free licenses, one for a two weeks free trial and one, unlimited time, for a single teacher who wants to work with this particular platform.

In the bottom line the three asynchronous LMS platforms have many similarities. All follow cloud architecture, are web based, support multilingual environment, are open source and their license is modeled as SaaS (Software as a Service). The three platforms have available applications for Android and iOS with Open eClass’ application facing some crushes and being the most outdated. Amongst the three asynchronous LMS platforms Moodle is the more powerful. Teacher using Moodle, has the opportunity to maximize distance e-Learning effectiveness. The goal which is to engage students having the appropriate tools following their progress is achieved. Gives more than enough options for customization, has many tools, its menu is user friendly and can be installed for free while paid services are offered supplementary. Moodle’s only drawback is its complexity when user attempt to exploit all of its capabilities. Open eClass is a simple alternative to Moodle. Its menu is easy, has all the necessary tools for managing asynchronous teaching and is also free distributed. Canvas is similar to Moodle, with modern and prettier interface which makes students’ interaction with it more attractive. Its free license covers only one individual person, hence any educational institute has to pay in order to install it.

3. Development of innovative online / distance learning practices tailored to the field of electronics, microcontrollers and programming education.

This section will present practices based on online tools which could be utilized for distance learning on the particular topics of interest for this project: electronics, microcontrollers, programming.

Practical learning activities play an essential part in science and engineering education. Traditionally these learning experiences are delivered through face-to-face laboratory classes. Modern technology allows educators to deliver these activities remotely and face-to-face using new innovative learning tasks. Approaches may include

·         remote laboratories,

·         virtual and augmented reality,

·         simulations,

·         emulations

·         and take-home kits.

Nowadays, face to face teaching and distance learning can be enriched by many tools, which can be used to support teaching process as well as be used instead of a real lab. All the above mentioned categories have been developed enormously during the last decade. Covid-19 pandemic, was the ideal chance for these tools be used and tested around the globe leading to a new way of teaching, which is based on the gained experience.

3.1. Tinkercad

Tinkercad (https://www.tinkercad.com/) is a free powerful software that can be used, in our case, for electronics, microcontrollers and coding as well. Tinkercad comprises a complete simulator for analog and digital electronics, which are mandatory in university for many degrees. Logic gates, resistors, capacitors, transistors, integrated circuits like the famous “555”, microcontrollers are some of the plethora of components offered by Tinkercad simulator. User can create not only simple but also complicated circuits and through simulation validate the expected outcome.

Tinkercad allows teachers to create classes, where students can join and engage to learning process by interaction with the circuits. Projects which use microcontrollers, like micro-bit and Arduino can be simulated in Tinkercad.

3.2. Circuitlab

Circuitlab (https://www.circuitlab.com/) is also a circuit simulator which runs only via web browser. Allows users to design and build analog and digital electronic circuits providing all the necessary elements. Simulation mode is used to carry out circuit simulations and confirm the predicted output. Additionally, plotting option expand Circuitlab capabilities while user can have a perception by any output or elements of its choice.

User interface is very friendly and documentation is complete, giving all the guidelines someone needed to build and simulate a circuit. Teachers can utilize such a tool for engage students to build a circuit and experiment by making adjustments and amendments watching results and outputs plots as a virtual lab.

3.3. WaveForms

WaveForms software (https://store.digilentinc.com/digilent-waveforms/) can be used as oscilloscope, logic analyzer and function generator in a computer, giving the opportunity to store plots and run custom third party code, like Matlab. Compatible WaveForms hardware can be connected to the computer via USB port hence, measurements and plots can be taken using corresponding software.

Furthermore, demo hardware is embedded in order new users get familiar with this piece of software. The price of the compatible hardware, which is not negligible, is the only disadvantage.

3.4. LTspice

A very well-known electronic simulator is the LTspice (https://www.analog.com/en/design-center/design-tools-and-calculators/ltspice-simulator.html). One of the older analog simulators for electronics and by having as initial page the stamp of the famous Mechanism of Antikythera (http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/events/exhibitions/nam-2012) reminds you from where the journey of engineering started back in ancient Greece.

It is easy to use and build circuits but documentation is limited. LTspice cannot be characterized as powerful tool, but it is a fair software which can be part of a teaching procedure, in higher education, for understanding analog electronics. Students could easy familiarize themselves with software and exploit it for creating basic circuits.

3.5. Multisim

Multisim (https://www.multisim.com/) is a dominant tool for design and simulate electronic circuits applied in education sector as well as in industry. It is available in online version but also can be downloaded and installed in a computer. Both versions give the ability to create complicated circuits, run simulation, watch outputs through oscilloscope and generate/store graphs.


Using Multisim Live (online version), teacher can share circuits and projects hence, students can access them easily. Can be argue that, online version is more convenient as no installation is needed, yet the standalone software is an evaluation version whose activation is limited to seven (7) days.

Despite this fact, Multisim is undoubtedly one of the best choice for teaching electronics. Teacher can create a virtual lab which promises effectiveness and pedagogical environment.

3.6. Circuito

Microcontrollers are one of the main topic which is offered in higher education in electronic or computer field and nowadays have become wide spread as Internet of Things (IoT) extends. Arduino and Raspberry are very popular for microcontrollers’ projects not only in high school but also in higher education. Circuito (https://www.circuito.io/) gives the opportunity to combine a microcontroller and other parts to implement a project.

User with Circuito can find the materials that needed for a project, watch how to make the connections between them and produce the C code for each element. After that, firmware can be downloaded and load it to the real microcontroller where it will run. Circuito is a brilliant tool where students can build the circuit, identify all the required parts and check the code.

3.7. Fritzing

Fritzing (https://fritzing.org/) is an open source hardware initiative, similar to Circuito. User can create circuits, mainly based on Arduino microcontroller using breadboard for placing the additional electronic elements. User can write the C code in code tab and then upload it to the actual hardware which is connected to the computer.

The ability of sharing projects, is a welcome feature for Fritzing that helps teachers to publish their projects in order to be accessible by the students. Fritzing cannot carry out simulations, alike to Circuito, nevertheless it is a valuable tool for replace real lab and introduce electronics and microcontrollers in higher education.

3.8. Makecode

A challenge for higher education is to make algorithms understandable by students and teach them how to write real programs. Makecode (https://makecode.microbit.org/) is a web based interface, created by UK educators/innovators aiming to inspire child to get know writing code. It gives the necessary tools for entry level programming, by utilizing blocks like Scratch, along with advanced topics such as functions and arrays.

In makecode, user can create a program using blocks or popular programming languages such as JavaScript and Python. Simulator offers the change to check the functionality of the project. However, it cannot be used for making sophisticated programs, yet only for basic initial steps in programming.

3.9. Openroberta

Openroberta (https://lab.open-roberta.org/) is also an open source, cloud based project, which started in Germany by Fraunhofer IAIS, aiming to encourage children learning programming.

For this purpose, many kinds of robots and microcontrollers have been adopted like, LEGO Mindstorms, Arduino, NAO and many others. Java, Python and C/C++ are the programming languages that a program can be written in Openroberta and language depends on which robot is referred to.

Teachers and students can create accounts hence save online their work. Through “Gallery”, teachers can share their programs with students and everybody else. Simulation visualize robot’s actions showing in real time how it reacts in sensor’s inputs while user’s code is running. It is an exceptional choice for teaching programming in higher education either face to face or by distance.

3.10. Jupyter

Jupyter project (https://jupyter.org/) is an open source lab aiming to support interactive scientific programming. User can write and execute programs written in different languages like python, C/C++, R, and Julia. Jupyter Lab can be installed on a computer or it can be used via web browser. Jupyter Notebook is a web application which allows users to create and share code via email, Dropbox or Github.

Even though Jupyter Notebook allows user to write complex programs and share its work, Jupyter does not provide the full package like an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) programming environment. That means Jupyter Notebook, which can support many programming languages, works more as a toolkit for data analysis rather than an IDE. Jupyter Notebook’s capabilities and sharing option make this tools very attractive for higher education.

Can be utilized for many programming languages to be taught, hence students do not need to learn different software every time.

3.11. Colaboratory

Internet giant Google, created Google Research and particular “Colaboratory” (https://colab.research.google.com/notebooks/intro.ipynb) which actually incorporates Jupyter Notebook, in order to offer a Python editor. It works the same as the Jupyter Notebook (but only for python) with the difference that it is easier to share code via G-drive and Gmail accounts.

3.12. Pythontutor

Pythontutor (http://pythontutor.com/) is an alternative web interface for writing code and visualize program’s execution. Except python supports Java, C/C++, JavaScript and Ruby. The advantage of pythontutor is that program execution is visualized, seeing which command is running and what the outcome actual is.

Additionally, lists, arrays and functions are also depictured, so the algorithm behind commands can be made more obvious by the teacher whereas, students understand exactly what the code does. Pythontutor is a great tool to visualize algorithms/programs suitable for higher education.

3.13. Eagle

Autodesk by Eagle (https://www.autodesk.com/products/eagle/) offers a powerful software for printed circuit board (PCB) designers. Eagle is an electronic design automation (EDA) which allows easily to connect parts, components and PCB and producing a new printed circuit. Schematic editor is used to create or edit a circuit while PCB layout generates the printed circuit whereas user makes the connections between pins. Eagle, by integrate Fusion 360, has a 3D viewer capability that makes PCB layout really amazing.

Fusion 360 is a cloud based 3D modelling, CAD, CAM and PCB platform for product design and manufacturing by Autodesk. Eagle is an incredible tool for higher education, also wide spread in industry, which can be utilized for producing PCBs ready for manufacturing.

Despite the fact that Eagle and Fusion 360 are industry focused, which means users and companies have to buy these tools, Autodesk offers a free, limited, version of Eagle whereas Fusion 360 has been provided free for one year in class mode.

3.14. Nearpod

Virtual reality (VR), Augmented reality (AR), Mixed reality (MR) and Extended reality (XR) can by deployed in education either face-to-face or distance giving a unique experience to students and teachers. Given that the biggest challenge for teachers in distance learning, even in higher education, is to increase students’ engagement level, these emerging technologies can work towards this path.

A user experience VR when feeling immersed to a fully digital simulated environment which is projected through a VR headset. On the contrary, in AR real world and virtual world are combined where real objects could be handled like digital ones via AR glasses or smartphones’ applications. In MR, both real and digital world co-exist and they can interact one with the other. Finally, XR reality is a term used when VR, AR and MR are blended as well as for the new technologies that are coming.

By deploying XR in class, even if it is in distance, teacher makes class more attractive and students more active as such a technology demands students’ engagement. The planning of the XR activity in a learning environment is teacher’s main role. Drawback for adopting XR in class can be considered the cost for corresponding equipment and the lack of tools and platforms where XR can be exploited. Google Expeditions (https://artsandculture.google.com/project/expeditions) and Nearpod (https://nearpod.com/) are the two most popular platforms. Although Google Expeditions does not have relevant material to programming or electronic, hopefully in the future will have.

3.15. Conclusion

Since COVID-19 pandemic started, higher education was seeking tools and new approaches to fulfil its purposes. Remote Laboratories is such a tool, which helped students to perform the corresponding lab exercises from distance. Remote Labs are not virtual, on the contrary allowing students and teachers to interact with real equipment to complete the exercise in a safe and flexible manner. Additional equipment and software is needed in order for remote access be allowed and become physically feasible. LabVIEW (https://www.ni.com/en-us/support/downloads/software-products/download.labview.html#369643) is a popular software which is utilized by universities’ labs in order teachers and students have the ability to access a physical lab and complete any scenario which is available through distance. Although, lack of access to analogous laboratory deprive a review on a real circumstances, Remote Laboratory composes a great tool for distance learning.

Take-home kits is an alternative to Remote Laboratories. A teaching method, which is suitable either for face-to-face or distance teaching. The idea is that students can give an effort at home to deliver a task using the available material from kit. This technique, especially in distance learning, helps students to meet learning milestones as they work alone to complete the necessary tasks. All students have equal opportunities as long as they have the same kit and the flexibility to work on it anytime and at any place they wish. For programming and microcontrollers topics, easily can be found in the market raspberry pi 4 kits (https://www.raspberrypi.org/) or Arduino (https://www.arduino.cc/) kits that are an ideal way to make students work at home on their own rhythm. Corresponding kit for electronics are available, whereas student can transform its computer to an oscilloscope or any other electronic device by installing the appropriate software. The aforementioned, WaveForms (https://store.digilentinc.com/digilent-waveforms/) is such a case.

4. Documentation of examples on how to organize a course using the selected online platform

In this section a scenario based on Zoom, as a synchronous platform, and Moodle, as an asynchronous platform, will be presented. A suitable topic for higher education is the understanding function’s usefulness in Python.

This scenario is addressed to 2nd or 3rd year university students.

Topic: Function in Python.

Lesson Focus and Goals: This lesson focuses on understanding functions in Python. The main goal is for students to be able to write Python programs which will incorporate functions. 

Learning Objectives:  By the end of this lesson students must be able to:

·         Understand how Python’s functions work and how a function is implemented.

·         Define and write a simple function with one or more parameters.

·         Implement medium complex programs with functions.

·         Recognize the needed function’s length.

·         Knowing in which cases we profit by function’s use

4.1. Scenario for synchronous online teaching

During synchronous online teaching with Zoom, teacher aims to engage students as much as possible by deploying all the available tools. Chat, screen annotation, polling, breakout rooms and white board are some of them. Students’ role and active learning strategies, are vital elements for a successful class and are teacher’s responsibilities.

Initially, teacher can ask students for chat replies in the question “Do you know what python’s function are? Have you ever use functions in any other programming language? ”. Zoom’s poll option can be utilized alternatively. Once teacher receives feedback in chat (or poll), could make a small talk with students (using raise hand option in Zoom) knowing now students’ familiarization with this particular topic. Then, a Power Point presentation will be shared with the students showing function’s essential characteristic.

Continuously, having complete the abovementioned task, teacher sharing its screen and introduce a simple python program which uses a function, in Pythontutor.

The goal is teacher to explain how functions are called via python code. When students have no more questions, teacher can open Jupyter notebook or Google’s colab to run a simple program with a function. Furthermore, teacher can share its code with students via a link and urge them to run it. As long as, everyone have run the code, teacher presents one or two extra examples hence, students get familiarize with functions. Then teacher could divide students into teams with up to four (4) students maximum, using Zoom’s breakout rooms, for assigning them a specific task for ten (10) minutes. The simple task could be: “write a program in python to read two (2) numbers and calculate the maximum number by deploying a function which will accept two (2) parameters and return the biggest between them”. After the predefined time passed and all students return from breakout rooms, each team will present its solution. Additionally, breakout rooms can be exploit for small group (up to six (6) students) discussions (ideas exchange amongst team members) the result of which will be exposed to the class whereas teacher can keep notes in Zoom’s whiteboard making them visible by anyone. Some topics that must be discussed are “when we have to use function?” or “how big a function could be?”. During the aforementioned tasks, teacher and students use Jupyter or Google’s colab.

At the end of the class, teacher should evaluate students’ progress which is a crucial factor for distance learning success. Evaluation can combine a Nearpod Quiz, a Zoom or Nearpod poll or any other suitable activity.

4.2. Scenario for asynchronous online teaching

Asynchronous platform Moodle is adopted for this scenario aiming to support the previous synchronous Python topic regarding functions. In order distance learning being effective, synchronous and asynchronous teaching must be collaborate and complement each other.

Teacher’s notes to the students, are basic for asynchronous online teaching. Initially, a quality set of notes should be uploaded to the corresponding Moodle course. These notes are also the presentation which will be used for synchronous online teaching.

After lecturing is completed, Moodle’s tools can be utilized to engage students and give them enough material to deeply understand functions in Python.

The following assignment can be given to the students: “Write a Python program to read 10 numbers and print a message if the number is even or odd by deploying a function”. Assignment would have time deadline. A more complicated assignment could be given like: “Write a Python function which takes a list and return a new list with the unique elements of the initial list” or “Write a program in Python that reads 5 numbers and print for each if number is prime or not via corresponding function that you will write as well”.

During assignment, students can use forum for asking questions other students or the teacher. “Are there any rules regarding function’s parameters” or “Where do we supposed to read values? In function or in main program?” are some possible questions in the forum. In case, that first assignment is finished quickly (due to the fact that it is easy) teacher can keep up by uploading a second, more advanced, assignment.

After students complete the assignments teacher can return back to them by providing the desirable answers and exchange views with the students. Detection of any mistakes or failures in students’ assignments must be followed while teacher should give a feedback to them.

Quiz tool can also be exploited to quantify students’ familiarization and understanding. Python code parts can be given asking from students to choose the correct output or to fill in Python functions in order to have the desirable output. Such a quiz helps students to understand whereas, guides teacher to help them more efficiently. Quiz’s questions must encourage students to explore python’s capabilities and exploit as many as possible.

Furthermore, forum can be a valuable tool for distance online learning and interaction amongst teacher and students. Forum is a vital communication tool between students but also for teachers. That is the place where solutions are proposed and potentially queries are emerged. Teacher can put a sophisticated topic asking for answers and proposals until the next meeting. This can motivate students for studying and searching. “How big a function should be?”, “How a function can return more than one value?” or “Could be a user create its own library of functions?” are some examples of the topics for conversation in the forum.

Moodle offers a feedback module, which allows teachers to get participants’ opinion for activities that have been designed, helping teachers to further improve course content.

5. Development of guidelines on how to support synchronous online teaching through live webinars

Due to the fact that lecturing could be a boring situation for many students, suggestions for making teaching process more attractive will be provided during this section based on teaching platform’s capabilities. Having granted that in distance online learning in higher education a lot of obstacles are arising, like lack of face to face communication or interactive dialog, teacher has to deploy any available tool to address them. Aforementioned difficulties must be overcame and students’ active participation being achieved. All webinar platforms are equipped with features which help presenter to maximize audience’s engagement during distance lecturing.  More preparation than face to face teaching is required by the teachers, in order an interactive and attractive webinar for students carried out.

Starting a Zoom meeting, teacher has to make sure that its microphone and camera are functioning properly. All participants are able to activate or deactivate their microphone and camera. In order noise be avoided, it is proposed that teacher activate the option “Automatically mute all participants when join a meeting” through its web profile so, all participants would join session with muted microphones.

Speaker selection is also available from microphone’s menu. In case of any malfunction with sound this menu could be the answer. In “Start/Stop Video” button beyond the basic function, user can change its background by deploying a virtual one, apply a Zoom filter or edit video settings.

Teacher may enable or disable participants’ ability to enter the main room (lock/unlock room), to unmute themselves, to chat or being capable to present via “Security” option. For best meeting management waiting room could be activated hence, participant should be admitted by host. Recently a new view option is available in Zoom. Except Gallery and Speaker views, Immersive choice allows host to allocate participants into virtual environments like an amphitheater, boardroom, classroom or any other place which is available. Repeatedly, Zoom software is updated and enhanced with new choices like Immersive view.

Main feature for webinars software is participants’ ability to share their screen, presentations, or audio/video content. Host is qualified to decide if one or more than one participants can share their content simultaneously. Through “Basic” tab user can share the whole screen, just a window or a whiteboard whereas, sharing a portion of screen, sound/video or the content form a second camera are the available options in “Advanced” tab. Additionally, files sharing is easily deployed via integration of popular applications like Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive, box and Microsoft Sharepoint.

As long as the presenter is always the heart of a lecture, the ability of coexistence more than one presenters in a webinar software could be exploited. Students, having the opportunity to present, enjoy the sense of being a vital part of the learning procedure hence, as consequence, students’ engagement is guaranteed. Undoubtedly, Zoom, is enriched with many sharing options which can be a powerful accessory in teacher’s hands in order to engage students by making its lecture more interactive.

Polls, a tool which can be compared with small questions in face to face teaching that many students answer, can be applied. All webinar platforms have intergrade poll feature in their tools. Polls can be used by the teacher to ask students’ opinion for a particular topic or to receive feedback regarding webinar so, presenter could improve any weakness. In the beginning of a session polls might be deployed as an ice breaker to engage students and make them feel comfortable whereas, polls can give a relaxed and fun feeling at the end of the class.

Furthermore, Questions and Answers (Q&A) is also a useful tool to make students actively participate during a class. For example, by making questions and receiving answers, based on participants’ personal experience, teacher can choose the plan that will follow during its class.  Collaboration and creative thinking may be encourage through questions and answers amongst the audience. Q&A is preferred to be utilized more than one time throughout the class duration, engaging participants and spread the feel that everyone is part of lecture.

Questions can be made not only by host but also from any participant anonymously or not. Only answered or all questions may be visible to attendees depending on host choice whereas they can answer a question, leave a comment or vote any question/answer hence, the Q&A window is sorted descending based on popularity showing the most popular Q&A first. 

The ability to have more than one presenters in webinar software, can also be exploited forward this direction. The fact that every student can be a presenter is a welcome surprise for the audience whereas for teacher, is a powerful tool for engaging students in learning process. Furthermore, live chat between teacher and students as well as between students is desirable. Private chat amongst students depicts their interest for topics which are analysed in class. Many times, these private conversations lead to questions and dialog in the class.

A suggestion could be that instead teacher presents, while at the same time has to keep an eye in chat, another person can handle live chat (i.e. teacher’s assistant) hence, there will not be any interruptions throughout lecture. Furthermore, sharing files is another usage for live chat.

Deployment of breakout rooms, a basic feature for almost every webinar platform, could be an alternative way to stimulate students to actively participate. Teacher can divide the main room into smaller breakout rooms and allocate students manually or automatically.

Sometimes setting breakout rooms taking into account participants’ wish, have better results, instead of creating random groups. By subdividing students they can discuss and exchange views which later will be presented to the main room, introduce an increment of engagement and interaction amongst teacher and students.

For instance, teacher putting a limited time assignment to the students in breakout rooms or ask students to come up with a proposal for a given problem, after exchange views for a small amount of time in breakout rooms, engage audience, keep students sharp and increase class dynamic.

Given that engagement and participation is requested for an online distance learning process, all the aforementioned techniques/tools serve that purpose.

6. Development of guidelines and examples on how to support and maintain online interaction among teachers-students and students-students

Interaction between teachers and students as well as amongst students is an essential aspect of distance learning. Examples of how to deploy tools for increase interaction and keeping interest alive will be presented through this part.

In Chapter 4 have been presented and analysed Zoom’s engagement features whose application by the teacher could bring the desirable outcome, which is an interactive and effective online learning process. Asynchronous platforms have also tools which are increasing students’ stimulation during distance online learning. Forum, Chat and Quiz features in Moodle platform, which have been mentioned in Chapter 1, could be deployed as an alternative way for participants’ collaboration. Moreover, Survey and Choice tools give host the opportunity to ask questions whereas their style may differ (i.e. short answer, multiple choice etc.). Abovementioned tools could be exploited by teacher to get audience’s feedback, collect data from students or perform a poll. Particularly, Choice introduces one question activity whereas offers a number of possible answers. In addition, H5P (HTML5 Package) is an important Moodle feature which allows interactive content such as questions, quizzes, games and any other multimedia content to be uploaded and be incorporated to any course.

Following paragraphs present third party applications that aim to increase audience’s engagement and keep teacher and students focus and motivated during distance online learning.

6.1. Guidelines & Examples for synchronous online learning.

Knowing that after 15-20 minutes of face to face lecturing audience is starting to distract, it is expected that distance online learning has more narrow time limits. Hence, interaction amongst teacher – students and amongst students is vital for keeping session alive. Teacher’s effort to engage students should be based on tools which gives attendees the opportunity to express their views, ask questions or contribute to the knowledge.

Mentimeter (https://www.mentimeter.com/) is a widespread tool for students’ engagement. Polls, interactive presentations, quizzes and brainstorming are some of its features. There is no need for installation or account by students’ side however, despite the fact that a free account is an option, teacher has to pay for having enough slides for a complete presentation. Free account includes 2 question and 5 quiz slides that are adequacy for a brainstorming, a word cloud, getting feedback or a quiz. Students are eligible to interact with Mentimeter since, they have the corresponding link and code so their voice can be heard throughout class.

Teacher ideally could exploit this tool for brainstorming or in case where a short and quick response is asked by students creating a word cloud. Additionally, quizzes are also an attractive solution for keeping students active during class.

Exploring students’ knowledge before lecture or check their level of understanding after class are some instances where quizzes are perfectly match. In summary, Mentimeter is a brilliant tool for interactive presentations by providing tools for audience’s engagement throughout a webinar.

Gamification is a new word, which describes the learning process that utilizes some sort of game. This new comprehension for learning, face to face or distance learning either, is based on game practices adoption into a non-game environment, like distance learning. The aforementioned technique aims at increase participants’ engagement whereas the desirable learning outcome being achieved through an amusing game/environment. Many gamification software are available in the market that can be utilized for enhance interaction amongst teacher and students. Loquiz (https://loquiz.com/) is one of the most well-known platforms that teacher can create sophisticated and innovative games. Main drawback, is the large amount of time which needed for design and create a game in order to be engaging and fun. Teacher’s imagination and creativity is the limit for such a project.

Nearpod (https://nearpod.com/) is a platform to create interactive presentations which also offers many tools for keeping students engage and active along class. Incorporates many activities beyond the usual that help teacher to keep students focus.

Real-time poll, quiz and question & answer are the basic activities that someone can find and implement in Nearpod yet in an attractive way. Furthermore, teacher can create simple games such as “matching pairs” or “memory test” making learning more fun and engaging. Collaborate board where, each student could leave a note or write an opinion and Time to Climb where, students have to answer questions in order to climb a mountain, are also activities which keep students active throughout distance learning.

Keep students engage is a service that Socrative (https://www.socrative.com/) offers through its tools. Teacher can use “Quick Question” to get students’ replies into a multiple choice, true/false or short answer question, having the feedback distribution in real time. Additionally, Quiz tool could also stimulate students as long as teacher designs interesting and smart questions.

Socrative quizzes and the delivered instant feedback, allow teacher to have a clear sense of its class in real time giving teacher the opportunity to adapt.

6.2. Guidelines & Examples for asynchronous online learning.

The main drawback for keeping students engaged in asynchronous online learning is the time issue. There are not connected in a virtual room at the same time hence each one works in its own time slot which results in a non-real-time interaction. Taking into account this situation in asynchronous mode of online learning teacher’s job is more difficult. Tools with imagination, effectiveness and user friendly should be deployed.

Something that students mostly forgot are deadlines and programs which is the purpose of existence Teachers (https://teachers.io/).

This tool makes easy for teacher to compose a plan for a week i.e. class, assignments deadlines, test and make it visible to any student through website or corresponding mobile application. Moreover, teacher can be share files or web links with students make an announcement or share any other information, aiming to organize its class.

Slack (https://slack.com/intl/en-gr/) is another tool for supporting interactive communication during asynchronous online learning. Based on hashtag idea, teacher creates channels (topic for conversation) and then a conversation starts amongst participants.

After channel’s creation, which can be public or private, anyone who is member can join conversation or share files. Beyond webpage, participants are able to download the application in a computer or use the mobile application. Slack will manage to increase interaction amongst teacher and students or amongst students transforming asynchronous teaching into a live field of asynchronous dialog. Taking into account that Slack has been design to cover business needs, educational use can be successful as well.

A different approach for sharing content or posting announcements is Padlet (https://padlet.com/) by using boards which are called “padlets”. In each padlet, teacher can write a note, a reminder, upload a file, a map etc. whereas, students also can do the same.

Composing a mutual way for asynchronous contact available even via mobile application. Padlet is an excellent approach for handling a virtual announcement board that the entire class can watch and post, result in an increase interaction amongst asynchronous audience. Company’s pricing policy offers only 3 boards for a free account.

7. Development of guidelines in the form of scenarios on how to support students’ projects/activities online

This section presents guidelines on how teachers could form a scenario which aims to be implemented by students during distance online learning. Different stages and implementation proposals will be cited. In higher education, knowledge, attitudes and skills are the main areas on which teachers should focus.

Initially, the problem should be set, as a result of teachers and students cooperation, pointing out all project’s details in order any ambiguous point be clarified. Continuously, teacher ask students to brainstorm on project subdivision, type of solutions and a time planning towards project’s completion. Consecutively, the teacher is responsible for forming teams which must be as many as the number of the project’s sections are. Creation and sharing follows the previous stage, which is very important for the quality and effectiveness of the final product or solution, which is obtained by assembly of all partial solutions. Evaluation is the last stage where conclusions are made about the proposed solution and the creators’ earned knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Setting the problem. Let us assume that a Python project is intended for 2nd or 3rd year students. At that level, students are familiar with object oriented programming (i.e. Java, C++) and have been familiar with working in small teams. The project’s topic will come as a result of dialog amongst teacher and students, taking into account all necessary parameters (the project’s size, the level of difficulty, and the number of teams). Project’s size should meet class’s needs with respect to the number of teams which are needed in order to address it. Furthermore, the project’s level of difficulty is also a fundamental aspect, as the target group to whom it is intended are students (2nd or 3rd year) with some programming experience.

Ideation and Planning. During that stage, the main project’s characteristics should be initialized. First, using an appropriate tool, i.e. mentimeter, all participants are able to propose the project’s title. Brainstorming is welcome as it increases students’ engagement and also is always a reason for exchanging opinions. Dialog amongst participants should include arguments about the reasons that a particular topic can be accepted, if a topic is suitable for students’ level of knowledge, take into account students’ interest in each proposal, the knowledge which will be gained by the end of the project and any other detail which may be vital for the project’s successful fulfillment. During the first online meeting teacher and students should choose what the project’s topic will be. Let us assume that the project title which has been selected is the “Library Application”. Database creation and application’s graphical user interface are amongst the most important parts of the project.

Having chosen the project’s title during the first meeting, the second step is about breaking the main project into smaller sup-projects, hence, each team should complete a small part of the whole work. Teacher in cooperation with students has to define the number and the members of each team. Knowing that the maximum number of students, which is for instance twenty (20), the teacher is aiming to form five (5) teams with four (4) members each.  Chat, polls and synchronous communication may be some indicative tools for exchanging views amongst participants over forming teams as well as each team’s tasks. As a result of the above mentioned dialog, there are five (5) teams with the obligations, which are described in the following table.

At the end of the project, teams will deliver the “Library Application” which will arise from the concatenation of the five contributions as they were indicated above. In order for the project to be completed successfully, teams must cooperate on a weekly basis for four (4) weeks, which will be the total given time for this project. During the first week, teams must clearly understand what they have to deliver and continuously allocate responsibilities amongst team members. It is obviously that Team 1, has taken over the most important part of the project and should give information to all the other teams regarding data bases structure. All teams, in cooperation with the teacher, should adopt a timetable which will depict work progress all throughout these four (4) weeks.

The next step is going to be the creation part where teams should create their corresponding segment of the project. Communication between teams will be a vital issue for the project’s success and works towards teams’ mutual interest. The tools that will be deployed by the teams should be open source software and will include:

·         Python IDE environment

·         Google Colaboratory for Python

·         MySQL or MariaDB

·         Moodle platform

·         Slack

·         Padlet

The Python IDE environment is suitable for local code develop and design graphical user interface while Google Colaboratory allows students to share code and increase interaction amongst teams. Additionally, the Moodle platform can also be adopted as a place for sharing Python files along with exchanging views and proposals between teams and members of each team. Finally, an open source widespread database software like MySQL or MariaDB will support students to create stable and powerful databases.

Teams will start to interact as long as databases have been defined as well as their fields, which are fundamental details for the other teams. Any database modification should be announced to the other teams in order to prevent any malfunction during project assembly. Team 1 after complete databases design, should start to implement the database server and create the databases needed, actions that are irrelevant to other teams’ work. Team 2 may start design user interface (GUI) which is not affected by any other team, whereas for databases search option in GUI has to cooperate with Team 1. Teams 2 & 1 have to decide jointly on what criteria should search option will be based on, as the searching criteria affect database’s architecture. Borrow and return book Python code cannot be started before Team 1 defines the two (2) databases, hence Team 3 has to cooperate with Team 1 in order to launch its work. Team 3 has to be updated for any change in databases otherwise its code will not fit into the final project. Python code for add/delete a book/person has been assigned to Team 4 which is also has to further get in contact with Team 1 to receive details about the databases. Moreover, Team 5 has to communicate with Team 1, 3 & 4 in order to carry out the statistical data and draw graphs.

It is obvious that the databases are very important for all teams in order to continue their work, hence Team 1 has to define the fields and their type as soon as possible and announce them to the other teams. Team 2 is also productive from the beginning due to the fact that GUI design does not have as requirement the existence of the databases. Moreover during week 1, Team 3, 4 & 5 should have online meeting to discuss their part of the project and make some proposals/ideas waiting for the Team’s 1 update about databases’ structure. Week 2 is an active week for all teams as they have the information that they need. Team 1 starts database creation while any changes must be reported to the other teams. As long as the databases are built, Team1 limits its productivity to cooperate with the other teams for making their code function and productive. All the other teams have to focus on their task, whereas Team 1 have to be available for any declarations. During week 3 students continue their effort to deliver on time. Project’s completion must take place all along week 4 where all teams have to assembly the five (5) parts and present one application. In case of any incompatibility, teams should make the necessary corrections and test again until everything fits. Once again, Team 1 has a critical role to play as everything has to be connected to the databases regarding the initial scenario. 

The biggest challenge of the project is how teams will cooperate and how smoothly synthesis will be. Teams via sharing information and their work through Moodle or Google Colab could avoid most of the major problems which could be occurred.  Teacher should be the coordinator of all the teams. By using Teachers.io application teacher will organize one weekly meeting and set any deadlines for work submission. Additionally, teacher can post any information or guidelines regarding teams’ cooperation. During the weekly meeting, teams will present their progress so far and the teacher can make any comments or corrections in relation to what has been done up until the meeting time.  Teacher should notice if a team is ahead or behind the schedule and make his/her comments. In any case, where a team needs an urgent answer in order to continue its work, the teacher should be available for communication via email or any application that has been utilized for the project.

Communication amongst teacher and students can also be enhanced with Slack application. The idea would be that the teacher will create a channel for each team hence, teams’ messages will not be mixed up. Slack application is an excellent tool for participants which will increase students’ engagement.

The teacher, in order to prevent any team from not completing its part, must supervise and guide all the teams concurrently.

Having granted that all parts should fit to the databases, which have been created by Team 1, unification has to be handled by the last mentioned team and Team 2 which has design the GUI. Each team must have a leader to whom will be directed all members’ queries. In case that a question cannot be answered by the team leader, question will be forwarded to the team which is responsible for that particular topic. Moodle forum option may be the best choice for having organized all questions in one place where all participants would be able to reply or give a piece of advice. Jupyter Notebook could be an alternative for Google Colab for sharing Python code segments, whereas Slack (https://slack.com/) is also a substitute for Moodle forum. As Team 1 & 2 are in charge of assembly effort, any code incompatibility found should be noticed, and the team which owns that part must make the necessary amendments and return the corrected part back to Team 1 & 2. Padlet (https://padlet.com/) also is a useful tool which could be adopted as a board for each team or a general board for announcements/posts as well as a cloud for sharing files amongst members. The teacher, as the creator of the Slack’s channels and Padlet’s board, can monitor students’ activities on a daily basis, having a clear picture about the progress of each team as well as possible can give any guidance considered would help the students.

When a project is about to conclude, evaluation of the submitted work and determination of what were the students’ benefits of such an educational activity is the ultimate stage.  Evaluation during a higher education training, aims to validate the students’ gained knowledge after project’s accomplishment. The easiest part is the application’s assessment, because any malfunctions will be obvious. Students will have the opportunity to present their work and answer any questions. The presentation could be online by using Zoom as a synchronous platform while other tools can also be adopted such as Google Colab, Jupyter and Nearpod. During the application’s demonstration teacher’s goal will be to examine the depth of students’ knowledge regarding the particular project. Furthermore, the project’s evaluation involves measuring learning effectiveness by determining three basic factors, which are knowledge, skills and attitudes. Hence, a feedback form or a questionnaire should be submitted by all participants in order to all the above factors being represented.